Readers Write: Nov. 28

Dems have ‘trickle-down’ model of their own

I’m responding to the Nov. 21 letter “GOP trying to sell false promises.” The letter-writer repeated a common Democratic contention that is pure hypocrisy. The political goal is to paint Republicans simply as rich people who want to exploit the poor.

The idea is that mean-spirited Republicans believe in “trickle-down” economics where the rich grab most of the money and sprinkle a few crumbs for the rest of us. In fact, Democrats support a more insidious trickle-down scheme. They promote a government that confiscates a big chunk of its citizens’ money, filters that revenue through a massive bureaucracy and then redistributes it to gain political advantage.

This bureaucracy isn’t very good at solving problems, but is quite effective at expanding its own role as the plantation overseers. What could be more “trickle down” than that?

BILL FOGARTY, ALPHARETTA

Americans must listen to each other

It is time for all of us — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents — to sit down together and engage in a productive dialogue over many issues, including climate change. We are all Americans, and we all share many of the same ideals, including fairness, making the world a better place, loyalty, passing on a better world to our children, providing for our families, respect and love of neighbor. With all our common values, there are no problems that we cannot resolve, but first we each need to listen to the other person. This means truly listening to their very real fears and concerns and not just trying to prove our point of view. This is indeed difficult, because it means recognizing that our opinion is not necessarily the only opinion. If we can do this, then we are much closer to resolving the very real problems of our times.

VERNON DIXON, HIAWASSEE